The field of this invention relates to medical devices and more particularly to a tray which facilitates the location of used sponges after such has been used to absorb blood during a surgical operation.
During the performing of surgery, it is most common to use a small gauze pad, which is commonly referred to as a sponge, to absorb blood. The bleeding by the patient obscures the surgical procedure by the physician. Therefore these sponges are used to remove the accumulated blood and therefore permit the surgical procedure to proceed.
Up to the present time, there has been no known method to accurately ascertain the amount of blood lost. If such amount could be ascertained, the precise amount of blood can be replaced to the patient in transfusions.
Additionally, a necessary requirement is to physically count each and every item which enters the surgery room and after the surgery the items are again counted to make sure that no foreign object remains within the patients body. For example, if fifty in number of sponges have been employed during the surgical procedure, each of the used sponges must be individually accounted for. Prior to this invention there has been no means which facilitated the counting of these sponges when used since they are normally placed in bulk within some form of a container.